The history of the Albion Cup

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There is a small trophy in the Albion trophy cabinet called the Albion Cup. No one is quite sure who produced it but it has transferred from club to club much like the Ashes. The holding club retains the trophy all the time they remain undefeated against the other Albions.

It was first won by the Seagulls on the 22nd September 1976 when they beat West Brom 2-0 at the Hawthorns in the League Cup - a Peter Ward brace.

However this was short lived and West Brom took the trophy back in August 1980 when they won 2-1 at the Goldstone.

The trophy remained at the Hawthorns until 1986 despite Brighton trying on 7 occasions to win back the trophy but 3 draws and 3 losses in the old first division plus a defeat in the full members cup in 1985 saw West Brom retain the trophy for just short of six years.

The glorious moment that the Albion Cup returned back to Sussex for the second time was in 1986, the 20th September when a 2-0 win for the Seagulls saw off West Brom at the Goldstone and gave Brighton the trophy.

However this was a short lived visit to the South Coast and two years later the Albion Cup headed back to the Midlands after West Brom won 1-0 at the Goldstone on 21st September 1988 in the old second division (the Championship to you young'uns). The Seagulls had only stayed unbeaten for one game between the sides before this.

4 matches between the sides followed with 3 losses and a draw before Brighton finally took the trophy back again on the 20th March 1991 with a 2-0 win at the Goldstone in the old second division. A season that saw us reach Wembley in the play offs, but the only trophy won was the Albion Cup!

Again though Brighton's grip on the trophy was relatively short lived as a 3-1 reverse at West Brom on the 3rd April 1993 sent the Albion Cup back to the Hawthorns where it stayed for a very long time.

The respective fortunes of the different Albions meant that the cup was not fought over for a further 14 years until this season when as we all know a Gross master class saw the Seagulls win 3-1 at the AMEX. I am unsure whether the West Brom chairman presented the trophy immediately to Tony Bloom, or it was sent in the post, but I suspect they didn't expect to lose so it may have been the latter!

As a footnote to this, Burton Albion have never competed in the Albion Cup - on the three occasions that they played Brighton and Hove Albion, Brighton were not the cup holders, and anyway we thumped them all three times. Burton Albion have never played West Bromwich Albion in a competitive fixture.

On four of the seven occasions that the trophy has changed hands the fixture was played in September. The trophy has never changed hands in January.

Since the first game in 1976 the trophy has spent 35 years at the Hawthorns and just 6 years on the South Coast. Was September 2017 the beginning of a new dawn in the club's history of the Albion Cup or are we giving it back tomorrow?

Mike Bamber made us lose at WBA rather than win 2-0 with both goals by Peter Ward. I've heard of North Korea and Stalinist history revision but Bamber rewriting the result of one of Brightons greatest cup wins?